I’m somewhat concerned about my girlfriend. She has always held beliefs that I consider to be preposterous, but now I am starting to question her mental health. She believes in an afterlife, and believes that deceased people can be communicated with via spiritual mediums. She also adheres to beliefs that are frequently associated with this practice, such as tarot card reading. In the past I have always been uncritical of her beliefs, but privately dismissed them as “New Age mumbo-jumbo” and regarded them as simply a natural and understandable response to fear of death. But now she’s telling me that she sees dead people. Should I encourage her to seek psychiatric attention? She says that this only occurs when she is in bed. Is it possible that wishful thinking is causing her to confuse dream states with reality? If so, is this pathological?
How possible is it that she’s actually seeing dead people? I personally don’t believe that our consciousness persists after death, but a substantial portion of the world’s population does. She’s always told me amazing stories about things that spiritual mediums have revealed to her, but I’ve always dismissed them as parlor tricks. Should I call her on the carpet and essentially say “prove it”?